Taunton pair arrested near Mill River shopping plaza

Police arrested two city men late Monday morning after they allegedly harassed patrons of Mill River Professional Center and tried breaking into vehicles parked in the Washington Street retail-and-business plaza.

TAUNTON — Police arrested two city men late Monday morning after they allegedly harassed patrons of Mill River Professional Center and tried breaking into vehicles parked in the Washington Street retail-and-business plaza.

The B&E charge was lodged after police determined the two acted as part of a joint venture in breaking into a Dodge Ram pickup.

Police said they were tipped off just after 11:30 a.m. by a Marine sergeant working at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center.

The sergeant told police that two males, later identified as Bird and Fitzgerald, were harassing people by begging for money and were also checking door handles of cars and trucks parked in the main lot.

The recruiting officer, police said, at one point observed Fitzgerald let himself into the unlocked pickup truck while Bird stood lookout.

When police caught up to the suspects at the nearby YMCA they allegedly were uncooperative. The younger man, in particular, police said, became “belligerent and began yelling and swearing.”

Police said they detected a strong smell of alcohol from the men and found a hypodermic needle on Fitzgerald, who allegedly admitted to being a heroin user.

The commotion, police added, clearly intimidated some patrons of the YMCA who either refrained from exiting or entering that building.

Bird and Fitzgerald are being held in lieu of $500 cash bail pending an Aug. 1 district court hearing.

Alex Dasco, asset manager of Atlas Investment LLC, the Boston development company that has owned the property since 2002, said a private security firm hired to patrol the grounds works full-time but not on a 24-hour basis.

“We fluctuate their hours according to the needs (within the plaza),” Dasco said.

He says his company, which also employs an outside management firm to provide an on-site property manager, tries to work and cooperate with Taunton police.

But Dasco also suggests Taunton police could pitch in more to keep suspicious-looking people from congregating on the grounds.

“It would be helpful if the police would drive through and provide some presence and kind of check on things,” he said.

Atlas Investment paid $4.5 million for the 15-acre former Mill River Place with its 165,000-square-foot building, which for years was known by many locals as the old “Taunton mall” — a name that harkens back to the 1970s when Stop & Shop and Bradlees were anchor tenants.

Atlas officials later claimed to have invested at least another $4.5 million renovating the building, repaving the parking area and beutifying the landscape.

“It was a ghost town when we bought it,” Dasco said. “Now it’s new and busy — lot of good things are going on there.”